“Words Cannot Describe:” Life in Dunkerque
Have you ever heard people say, “words cannot describe” when they talk about an unusual event or situation? That phrase means something beyond the ability of people to imagine. Often, it’s an exaggeration of how they reacted with feelings like surprise, shock, amazement, happiness, sadness, anger, or some other emotion. Things probably were not that bad. However, it is not an exaggeration for what Dunkerque residents found when they returned home after World War II.
Men, women, and children left the city to save their lives as Nazi soldiers and war planes approached in 1940. Many headed for villages in the countryside to escape the destruction that lay ahead. Some moved in with relatives or friends. Others had to depend on the kindness of strangers.
Waves of Destruction
The first big wave of destruction for Dunkerque came during the Battle of France. The Allied army, then consisting of British and French troops, was being defeated by the Nazis, and was retreating. Britain picked Dunkerque as the last hope for saving those soldiers.
Dunkerque was the only port in Northern France where soldiers could wait until a rescue operation could get them back across the North Sea to Britain. The Nazis, of course, wanted to prevent that and destroy the Allied army. So they attacked Dunkerque with bombs, artillery, and other weapons. You’ve probably seen one version in the popular 2017 film, “Dunkirk.” The attack caused enormous damage to Dunkerque.
Dunkerque suffered more damage after the Allies invaded France and drove the Nazis out.
More damage occurred after the Allies invaded France on D-Day on June 6, 1944 and began driving the Nazis out. The U.S. Air Force bombed Dunkerque to free it from the Nazis. As Allied forces pushed the Germans back across France, Nazi soldiers took revenge by blowing up more buildings. Those retreating soldiers needed to eat, and they stripped the French countryside clean of food. They broke into stores and restaurants and carried off the food. In the countryside, soldiers raided farmhouses, storage sheds, barns, and chicken coups.
Devastation in Dunkerque
People could return home after the U. S. Army drove out the Nazis and liberated Dunkerque in May 1945. That was a few months before the European part of World War II ended on September 2, 1945. And, yes! Words could not fully describe the ruins that they found. The devastating attacks had destroyed 90% of Dunkerque.
If you counted the houses, apartment buildings, stores, restaurants, schools, factories, car repair shops, doctors’ offices, pharmacies, fire stations, police stations, bus stops, buses, cars, bicycles, streets, bridges, train tracks, parks, trees, and electric power poles, you would have found that 9 out of 10 were reduced to piles of rubble.
From Bad to Worse
Other factors conspired to make their situation worse. Dunkerque’s port had been severely damaged, making it difficult for shipments of food, farming equipment, construction materials, and other goods to reach the city. The winter was especially cold, increasing the suffering of people who did not have warm clothing or enough food or fuel. Another problem: The Nazi army had placed mines on almost 1.3 million acres of land in France.
If a person stepped on one of these bomb-like devices, the mine would explode, causing severe injury or death. Mines were a special risk, for farmers trying to plow their land to plant crops. Farmers struggling to resume food production also had to contend with summer drought that killed their crops or reduced harvests.
“The People Need Everything”
Mrs. John K. Sloan, of American Aid to France (an organization working to help Dunkerque residents) in New York City, described some of the damage in a speech in Dunkirk, N.Y, on November 14, 1946. “The city is now dank and dismal,” she said. “There are no trees standing. . .Only barren land with temporary barracks for homes, no electricity and no water system. The people need everything.”
People of Dunkerque needed food, clean water, all kinds of clothing, blankets, beds, spoons, forks, dishes, cups, pots and pans, tables, chairs, shovels, and seeds to grow food. They needed medicine, bandages, surgical equipment, ambulances, trucks, cars, school books, pens, pencils, gasoline, bicycles, and cows to produce milk for the children.
Kids With Soft Bones
Two out of every 3 children suffered from rickets, a disease that softens and weakens the bones when kids do not get enough vitamin D or calcium. Cow’s milk was the main source of calcium at this time. But most of the cows were killed in the war. And there were no vitamin D pills to help those kids. People needed vitamins. They needed chickens, livestock feed, soap, towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, shovels, hammers, saws, plows, rakes, and wheel barrels. Mrs. Sloan was not exaggerating. The people of Dunkerque needed everything — all kinds of other things that we take for granted in everyday life.
A Sister’s Helping Hand
Almost 4,000 miles away, people in Dunkirk, NY, heard about those needs. It got their attention because Dunkirk and Dunkerque shared a connection. They were “sister cities,” linked to one another by a common name. Indeed, Dunkirk had been named for Dunkerque in 1818 because it so resembled the French town. People in Dunkirk, NY, got together and started a humanitarian relief program to help their sister city recover. They called it “Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque.”
Banners like this were displayed throughout Dunkirk, NY. to encourage donations for Dunkerque.
Everyone got involved: The newspaper, churches, schools, labor unions, social clubs, farm organizations, industries in a community-wide effort. People donated $75,000 worth of goods – an enormous sum in those days. It would be almost $1 million in today’s money. They donated clothing, dried milk, cans of fruit and vegetables, farm animals, garden tools, vitamins and other medical supplies, furniture, blankets, seeds from the local seed factory, children’s toys, books, school supplies. They donated almost “everything” in the “everything” that Mrs. Sloan said the people of Dunkirk needed.
Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Day
Dunkirk residents decided to celebrate that success with special events on Thanksgiving Day 1946. They called it “Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Day.” Trucks loaded with all those donations formed a mile-long parade down the main street of the city. Movie stars and French government officials were among the thousands who came to watch the parade. To watch and to marvel! There were other events and ceremonies, including a banquet for 1,000 people.
Another was a special live radio broadcast of the events beamed to people — where do you think? Yup. People in that sister city, Dunkerque, France. Reporters from television networks and national newspapers flocked to Dunkirk to tell the world about this amazing day. CBS News held a then-rare live broadcast of the parade, similar to today’s live broadcasts of New Year’s Even in Times Square and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City.
The “Other” Miracle of Dunkirk
That’s how headlines in The New York Times and other newspapers described Dunkirk’s outpouring of generosity. It became an international sensation. People in towns and cities in other parts of the United States learned about Dunkirk’s good deeds.
They decided to start that own campaigns to help people in devastated parts of Europe. Dunkirk, NY, did not stop with help for Dunkerque, France. People in Dunkirk soon started another relief campaign for Anzio, Italy. That port city on the eastern coast of Italy had been devastated when the Allies invaded in 1945. There was a fierce battle to drive out the Nazi army. All this happened 10 years before start of the famous Marshall Plan. A program of the U.S. government, it provided money and other assistance to help war-devastated areas of Europe rebuild.
President Eisenhower later picked up on Dunkirk’s idea of people helping people directly without waiting for the government to step in. Mr. Eisenhower started what now is the People to People International program. One part of it sends high school and other students in the U. S. to other counties as “student ambassadors.” Did Mr. Eisenhower get his idea from Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Day? Maybe. But we do not know.
A Miracle for Today & Tomorrow
All this happened in another century, for goodness sake! In the 1940s! So what, already? What does something that happened so long ago mean for people today? How does Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Day connect with life in the 21st Century? The answer is the most important message of the Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Heritage Center.
A simple but compelling idea was at the heart of those events so long ago. Ordinary people, committed to a common goal, working together, really can change the world. We don’t have to wait for governments to act. Or politicians. Or big organizations. Or the rich and famous. Margaret Meade, a famous anthropologist and writer, said it best: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Micro Activism
People of Dunkirk, NY, never knew it. But they may have been among the world’s first and most successful “micro activists.” That term comes from the words “micro,” which means “small-scale,” and “activism,” which means “taking action to achieve a result.” The action can be anything that supports or opposes something you regard as important. In Dunkirk, it was individual people donating goods, money, or time to help their sister city. They certainly got results, and became the model for other American cities.
Each individual did something that seemed small in itself. A child donated a toy. A grocery store owner donated cans of veggies. A doctor donated spare medical instruments. But with many other people doing that same small things, the impact was huge.
The Micro Activist in YOU
You don’t realize it, but you probably have been a micro activist for years. Have you ever “liked” something on Facebook that seemed important? Maybe on Twitter, you re-tweet to your own followers posts that support your beliefs or hopes. Remember when you emailed family or friends a link to that news story about a cause in which you believe? All of these actions are forms of micro activism: Small-scale actions that can have big impact. In the past, being a micro activist was difficult.
There were only a few ways to communicate about a goal and get others involved. And communicating to get people to work together was slow. People in Dunkirk , for instance, spread the word about their relief program by talking to others and reading the local newspaper. Today, however, it is much easier. The Internet allows us to communicate with lightning speed to huge numbers of other people. One Tweet, Facebook post, or email forwarded and forwarded can get lots of attention. Here’s a good starting place.